The difference is that this country’s history is not full of oppressed and murdered white people being tolerated by the judicial system. How nice it must be to live a life so detached from the reality of others that you could make such an ignorant remark and think it’s in any way clever. Ah, privilege.

JW

Stop blaming past circumstances to current problems. I’m tired of hearing how blacks are still being oppressed! In a way, blacks are oppressed by the way they think! It’s sad that you look at the world based on the color of ones skin. Let me ask you something, how do we elect a president who’s black, half black that is, if rascism is so prevelant? How is one of the wealthiest women in America black (i.e. Oprah) if rascism is running wild as you believe! There are so many black Americans that have “made it” that working at there chosen profession as I write this. Are there incidences of rascism, you bet, and it works both ways! Tragedies and bad judgement happen everyday, I hope the truth will be found in both cases so the healing can begin!

HarveyMushman

JR

So you’re making the argument that because of prior oppression of black people that it’s OK for black people to riot and loot their own neighborhoods because a black person was shot and killed. BEFORE getting all the facts. Like, whether or not the officer was justified. Like, whether or not the justice system will properly deal with the officer if he wasn’t. Do you really think it’s productive to erupt into uncivilized anarchy before you find out if you have indeed been oppressed?

The fact is, this has nothing to do with prior oppression of black people. THIS IS ABOUT HAVING A BETTER EXCUSE THAN NORMAL TO ROB, STEAL, DESTROY PROPERTY AND BEAT PEOPLE UP. Sorry, but that’s ALL this is. Honest, decent, civilized black people understand that the time for action is AFTER you find out you’ve been wronged.

Connor

Slc police officers are getting way out of hand. Clearly poorly trained and way too trigger happy. Last summer my friend and I were shooting pump action BB guns in my backyard at cans and our neighbor behind us decided to call the cops. Next thing we know they were standing behind our gate with all 3 of their guns drawn on us. They were clearly watching us for sometime and knew they were BB guns. All they said was if you even started to move those guns in our direction we would’ve killed you. Wow

ftlvwrx

Lets break this down Conner. First shooting BB guns in the direction of a household is your first problem. Doesn’t matter if it’s a BB gun, Paintball gun or Slingshot. Do you know that the Cops were behind you for a long time? Or is that just an opinion again? Cops can’t tell what kind what gun you have from a distance, they were responding to a 911 call for two armed people shooting towards somebodies residence. Cops don’t get the type of gun details from the dispatchers because they don’t know all the facts. It doesn’t matter what Police Dept would have responded, they would have most likely drawn their sidearms too. Also you can’t say they are trigger happy when you and your friend are in fact still breathing after having 3 Officers draw their sidearms on you.

Mike Wingfield

Conner was there and you weren’t. If they had been watching them for some time it’s clear they knew they had BB guns shooting at targets. Police shootings are getting way out of hand. And, I’m a middle aged white man.

c'mon yourself

Dre

a BB gun is a weapon and shooting those in city limits is illegal anyway, well in most states it is anyway. same with paintball guns, slingshots, and certain knives. they could have watched you for an hour and it wouldnt have changed anything. pointing an armed and deadly weapon at anyone while shooting weapons that are already not supposed to be fired in city limits is a no brainer.

Tabby

Michelle DeSilva

Was the officer involved Olsen the officer that shot Geist I wouldn’t be surprised can’t wait to see what Burbank has to say about this shooting looks like there needs to be an investigation into the SLCPD shooting policy

Pull your head out. BURBANK IS THE POLICE CHIEF OF SALT LAKE CITY P.D. This incident took place in South Salt Lake. Two different municipalities, two different police departments and two different Police Chiefs. The SSL Chief of Police is Jack Carruth.

Yet another egregious use of deadly force and abuse of power by a cop. This police state is becoming more and more apparent. Nowhere in our Constitution does it say ‘comply with police requests or die.’

Ed

Checkyourfacts

So even though 67% of police shootings in this country involve a white victim you think we need to increase that number another six times? I think you might be suffering from a bit of a media delusion because the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting database tells a pretty different story on the situation. 67% of police shootings hit a white victim compared to 63% of the population being white. The other 33% is divided among Hispanics, blacks, and Asians, in that order. Check your facts friend.

Slack

Trigger happy? He reached for his waistline after not complying and then was shot. Notice the part about how the other two complied and were not shot? Sounds like they shot the man that looked like he was about to pull a gun on them and didn’t shoot the ones that didn’t. I don’t see how that’s trigger happy. You all think the police are so awful. Lets get rid of them and then see what happens. Maybe the TCG would like to take over the responsibility of law enforcement.

Robert

fedupwithslcpd

well slacc the police shooting policy does not state that if u reach for your waist band that you get shot it states that if they are in danger they can respond with deadly force that means they have to wait till they see a gun or knife you idiot not a man reaching for what could have been his wallet and also no where does it state that you have to stop when a cop calls you out or you get shot now i have been on both sides of the law in my 31yrs im not from utah im from east side atlanta with 10 times the ammount of gun violence and they still arent going to just shoot you because you didnt comply with the orders at that exact second they spoke so i can tell that you are a very sheltered person that hasent dealt with crime much in your life

ftlvwrx

Slack. Finally someone with some common sense. Police get a call of a man waving a gun in the air. The police respond and identify the man based on a description. They order the man to get on the ground, he reaches for his hip, cops shoot him while (RESPONDING TO A CALL FOR A MAN WITH A GUN). I’d say shooting him was justified. Had I been the cop I wouldn’t wait for someone to draw a weapon and shot me first before I shoot them. It doesn’t work like that. To all the hippies saying that the cops were trigger happy get a life. The only time people love cops are after people get hurt then the cops kill the criminals.

Eugene Thaden

So, in the west when someone is attacked by a grizzly bear or wolf and responds with deadly force, killing the bear or wolf, he has to exhibit claw marks or bites to prove that he was indeed attacked. Without those marks he will spend time in a cage. The same thing should apply to police officers, if they shoot and kill someone they have to exhibit the bullet wounds, knife cuts, stab wounds or club bruises if they are not going to jail for a long, long time. Governments (States) have murdered over two hundred million (200,000,000) in the last century, the US has caused the deaths of at least 20 to 30 million people in the last 50 years or so because of its interventions. The police are the enforcement arm of the government, more and more of the federal government. It has been ruled over and over again by the Supreme Court (sic) that the police have no obligation to come to our aid or protect us. They are not about protecting and serving, but about controlling what the state sees as the livestock that it owns, namely us. There are no criminal gangs in all of history capable of murdering on the industrial scale the state is guilty of. Criminal violence is infinitesimally small compared to state violence. More innocent people have been murdered by police since 9/11 than have been killed in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. If they were merely useless it would be one thing, but they have turned from parasitical to predatory in an extreme way in the last 20 or 30 years. And that’s if you don’t look back as far as the national democratic convulsion in Chicago in 1968.

Kelly

Kevin

Thank God you are not a cop with your shoot first ideology….I agree cops have a tough job and I don’t think they start their work day hoping to get a chance to shoot someone….but I do think it has become way to easy for them to pull the trigger and that is a manifestation of the attitude you express and the concept that they have become part of the war on terrorism since 9-11. We have given away too many of the rights and freedoms this country was founded on in the knee jerk response to a single terrorist act from almost 13 years ago and to what end….are we any safer now? Hardly and the cost for this so called security has been the steady erosion of our personal rights and the increasing power of authorities to violate these rights in the name of patriotism.

mark j williams

This is insane, police were given tazers that shoot so this sort of thing does not happen. It should had been confirmed if he had a gun or not. Its clear that the salt lake city police are taken advantage of there badges, they will take a life for fun, any well trained officer would tell you that this 20year old kid did not need to be killed all because some one called 911 with allegations what happened to inocent until proven guilty. I would understand if there was a gun and the supect was threating the cops but this was CLEARLY not the case!

teesha

All I have to say to the people who justify the situation is that if this was ur brother or ur family u wouldn’t be saying any of this at all. That’s my brother and he was a great man and had so much to look for until a cop killed him. Instead of just assuming why don’t u guys go see the cameras if they let u and then u will have a better understanding to this situation. No one had a gun or anything. No one was armed so just remember if this happened to ur family it would be different.

Maryirene

ashley

Sad..my prayers are with his family. . I think the news needs to not worry about what was on his fb days before, he was shot for no reason. . I hope the family gets justice. . They could’ve just tasered him and he would still be here today.. RIP Dillon

SLCPD Chief wants his cops to shoot and kill so only his keystone cops will have just their side of the story he doesn’t care about Citizens or their Families as shown by condoning the cold blooded murder of Geist. Now this what a disgrace to Utah and America!

jozh ziegel

Look guys you dont know anything dillon is my brother and my best friend he pulled up his pants showed the cops his hands about to get on the ground to COMPLY and then fatally shot on impact just like teesha said if he was your family you would say such hurtfull things…

First of all, he wasn’t your brother. He may have been your friend but not your brother. Second: You weren’t there, so you didn’t see what happened. Third: If you were such a brother type of best friend, why wouldn’t you offer him a place to spend the night?

c'mon yourself

dave

as i have said before im a big fan of taking responsibility. if it was me that got shot and and i lived i would have to ask my self what could i have done better to make sure it didnt happen again or even the first time, a small list of effective things might be (dont handle a gun in a dumb way ever, dont hang out with bad friends… wow those two really cover alot.) and as for the officers…. well imagine your that officer can you tell me you cant imagine a situation where shooting makes since. its also a option that the officer did screw up, but im ok also saying that i can think of a situation where shooting makes sense too

when i was young i used to hang out with a bad crowed and got in trouble a few times even tho i didnt do anything it didnt take me long to realize if i wanted bad things to stop happening to me i would have to do something about it even tho it wasnt me directly doing anything bad. so i dumped those loosers. (let alone anything i do do directly that gets me bad results)

there arnt too many people who have the facts just the kid who is dead. the cop and anyone else who was there. i cant say if the shooting was justified or not i can tell you if he did have a gun then tazering is way dumb first off they only have a short range and even if he got hit with both barbs he may have squeezed (wow i just found out squose is not a word :) ) the trigger or shot the cops after the tazing was over. also shooting a armed person in the leg just pisses them off and encourages them to shoot you, so that dosnt really work.

and yes i have a few dumb nephews who would do something like these kids did and im waiting for there dumb choices to get them on the news with something just like this story.

C'MON PEOPLE

The police identified themselves, this young man walks away and reaches for his waist to pull his pants up instead of listening and complying with the police officers? I’m sorry but all these peoples getting shot by the police are bringing it upon themselves.

They were searching for a man with a gun, this man didn’t comply and reached for his waist. Same thing with the West Jordan Wal Mart shooting. Dude was wanted for multiple felonies but didn’t comply with police and threatened harm. Same thing with the Williard case. Cops identify themselves, she tries to flee potentially mortally harming both officers, and she ends up shot.

You people bring this upon yourselves with the decisions you make to put the officers AND CIVILIANS LIVES IN DANGER.

stupid C'MON

I cant beleve what im reading. Ok so u think its ok 2 use deadly force for not listening and complying then reaching for his waist. Im 80% deaf & i attach my keys to my belt loop. chances are i wouldent of heard the officer, when i leave a store the first thing i go 4 are my keys. any 1 know where i can get a BP vest.

Lethal

Christy

If you listen to the other videos the witnesses say he had his ear buds in his ear and didnt hear the cops or anything and when he saw them all he was doing was lifting his shirt so they could see he didnt have anything.

Dee

“Salt Lake City Police confirmed it was a Salt Lake City police officer involved in the shooting”
Wow a lot of illiterates here, or did half of you not bother to read the article? SLPD at it again……what an embarrassment they are! It sounds like the SLPD will hire any loser who applies…..no training necessary ….

C'MON PEOPLE

Dillon Taylor, was witnessed waving around an object that fit the description of a gun.

Witness call the police.

The police arrive to investigate the firearm call.

The police see the three individuals and order them to stop.

Dillon Taylor; Unlike the other two, ignored the police officers (interfering with their investigation) and then reached for his waist (Who knows why but if you have guns pointed at you and are ordered to stop, the last thing ANYONE would do is reach for their waist).

Dillon Taylor, had a felony arrest warrant

Dillon Taylor, posted to facebook that he would rather die than be locked up in a cell for the felony warrant.

Dillon Taylor, chose to act like he had a gun and wave whatever object he had around.

Dillon Taylor, chose to ignore police officers.

Dillon Taylor, chose to reach for his waist rather than comply with the officers.

Dillon Taylor; if he did have headphones in, he was still with two other people. You mean to tell me that Dillon Taylor did not see the two people he was with stop for the police, who had all the surrounded with guns drawn? If so, then you are delusional.

C'MON YOURSELF *BE ORIGINAL*

Raquel Duna-Perez

I think police 4 got that they are here to serve n protect the people. They r all a bunch of bully’s that got pick on in school. They use their military skills now (trained killers) they already have Humvee n now they say they need more weapons attached! Sicking!!

mert1212

COPS DO save lives. They saved my daughter from going into shock. They saved my husband from dying in a car crash. HERE is the point people so wake up and pay attention NOT all cops have bad judgment, not all cops are trigger happy, and a lot of your officers served this country and fought in a a war to give every and wait for it I said EVERY American this pesky thing called FREEDOM. Stop lumping every law enforcement officer into the same category. Without them think about how this world would be. Remember that the next time you have an emergency and need an officer to help. Deal with it yourself. God bless all men and women who put a uniform on t protect us. Let the dang justice system do its job.

Eugene Thaden

This applies here too.
By Betty Ackers

How does Ferguson react? There are the riots, of course, thugs without badges using Mr. Brown’s demise as an excuse to rob and loot. And there are the vigils, ostensibly in memoriam but doing double duty as protests of “police brutality.” While Bostonians understood that “police brutality” was the whole point, modern Americans fantasize that cops can enforce Our Rulers’ whims gently and with deference to us, if only they have the right training and personnel. They persist in whining for reform despite the heaps of corpses after thousands of previous reforms. And they want “justice” with “the officer who did this [to Michael Brown]…prosecuted by the law.” Boston did, too. The soldiers stood trial; John Adams famously (or infamously, depending on your view) defended them. But no one mistook so small a step for curing the problem. They knew they must rid Boston of all its predators, not just those that happened to shoot during the Massacre.